Polling places staffed by 9 workers who attended up to a week of training; tables with tablecloths and flowers;counting the votes at the polling place. It couldn’t be more different than voting in the U.S.

Join us Tuesday, Nov. 20 at 132 South Addition, Boalt Hall, for an eyewitness account of the July 2012 Election in Nagorno Karabakh (in the South Caucasus) as well as a discussion of the Election by representatives of Armenia/Nagorno Karabakh. (More here: PDF)

Event:

Elections, Democracy Building and Civil Society in a Peri-Conflict Region:
The 2012 Presidential Election in Nagorno Karabakh Republic

Co-sponsored by Berkeley Law’s Election Administration Research Center and The Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law; the Armenian Studies Program and the Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, UC Berkeley; and the Human Rights Initiative, UC Davis

On July 19, 2012, the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh held its fifth presidential election since declaring independence in 1991. Two candidates, Vitaly Balasanyan and Arkady Soghomonyan, challenged the incumbent President Bako Sahakyan. President Sahakyan won re-election. A team of Elections and Human Rights experts from UC Berkeley and UC Davis were part of a California group that traveled to Nagorno Karabakh to observe the election. Please join us for the election observer’s reports, followed by a panel discussion of the salient issues in elections and governance of Nagorno Karabakh.

Panel 2: Elections and Governance of Nagorno KarabakhHonorable Grigor Hovhannissian, Consul General of the Republic of Armenia in Los AngelesH.E. Robert Avetisyan, Permanent Representative of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic to the United StatesMr. Ashot Ghulyan, Chairman of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic National Assembly
Discussant: Stephan Astourian, Assistant Adjunct Professor of History and Executive Director of the Armenian Studies Program, Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.